


Prince of Nothing

by Osaka_Prince_Yuta



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Historical, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Homophobia, Kings & Queens, Love, M/M, Minor Violence, Princes & Princesses, Royalty, Slow Burn, Slow Romance, Social Hierarchy, Status Effects, baker - Freeform, farm boy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-23
Updated: 2021-02-23
Packaged: 2021-03-13 20:53:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29657139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Osaka_Prince_Yuta/pseuds/Osaka_Prince_Yuta
Summary: YangYang was a Prince. Maybe he wasn't first in line for the throne, but a prince no less, and as a prince, he must protect his reputation.Haechan was a lowly farm boy, working around his neighborhood for money to help his family survive. He was no one a prince should be hanging out with.YangYang didn't care for appearances, even as a child. Haechan was his best friend, regardless of what his parents thought. Little did he know then what steps his parents were willing to take to keep he and Haechan apart. But, the question is, will it be enough, or were they only prologuing the inevitable.
Relationships: Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Liu Yang Yang
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	Prince of Nothing

**Author's Note:**

> This is an ongoing fic. I will try to update regularly. Please let me know how you like it!!

A young boy sat on the stoop of a shabby cottage torn, dirty clothes hung loosely on his small frame, wearing nothing on his feet save for healing wounds of briar patches. Despite his disheveled appearance, he had a wide grin across his mud-caked face. Beside him, sat an equally mucky boy dressed in a long scarlet robe with golden accents. A small golden crown sat atop his head, decorated in muddy fingerprints. The boy dressed in robes wore elegant black boots that hugged his ankles beautifully and disappeared further up his calves, disappearing under the brilliant robe, the soles now caked in mud. 

Both boys sat blissfully happy, giggling as they rehashed their joyous morning full of splashing through mud holes and chasing animals down a foot-trodden trail men around the countryside took to and from mines and labor farms every day. A morning of catching fish in the ugly lake in the woods behind the Kim farm. A morning of swatting mosquitoes and climbing the tallest trees until they could see the silver walls of the grand palace where horse drawn carriages and footwalkers were traveling from at all hours of the day. A palace where the robe-wearing boy had escaped from the night before, only to meet up with his rag-wearing friend late in the night, sneaking into his bedroom window and roaming the land of the country all morning as guards searched for the missing boy. 

“Mom’s going to freak when she sees me,” the robe-wearing boy called YangYang spoke, although there was no remorse for his mother's feelings in his tone. 

“We can go back to the lake,” the other boy, Donghyuck, suggested, turning to stare at his friend for confirmation. 

“Nah, she’ll be upset either way. To her, there’s no difference in coming home muddy or coming home soaked,” YangYang responded. 

“Still, we can take our clothes off and scrub clean. Dirty boots are better than a dirty crown,” Donghyuck responded, to which YangYang only shrugged before getting off the stoop. 

“I suppose it wouldn’t hurt. Might save me from getting an extra three guards on my case.”

Donghyuck brought himself up as well, grin never leaving his face as he led the march away from the house, back toward the ugly lake in the woods. To get there, they had to trod over the same worn road, which was riskier as noon rolled around. More people awake and guards were definitely roaming the area searching for the missing boy who had made quite an effort to escape the suffocating confines of the palace. 

The walk to the road was easy. Donghyuck’s hand locked onto YangYang’s as the two moved through bushes together, ducking into shrubs as horses raced past. Most bearing people out for everyday rides or returning from work for lunch. Some were panicked guards, desperate to find the missing boy who didn’t want to be found. As the passerby moved out of range, they continued the walk back to the woods. 

Crossing the main road proved to be more difficult than either boy had bargained for. They found a bush on the side of the road that would conceal their small bodies until the area cleared enough for the duo to run across. However, it was far more crowded than either had expected. The road itself was a reddish-brown dirt road covered in footprints, the occasional rock, and horse droppings; all currently in a stew of shiny mush from the rain the day early that morning. When YangYang and Donghyuck had first been out and about, there weren't many people along the road. They’d left later than the workers heading to work, but earlier than the palace guards waking to find the empty chamber of the foreign prince. Their morning had been peaceful. Now, there was not a good opportunity to cross. Guards on horseback trotted up and down the mucky mess, parting the people on foot heading home for lunch or returning from the market. There was also the occasional horse-drawn wagon carrying fruit or grain from a neighboring farm to the marketplace. With this much traffic, crossing would be difficult, and crossing undetected would be impossible. 

Most people would recognize Donghyuck as the eldest child in his family and the boy who willingly ran along the countryside helping milk cows for the elderly or incapable people. He was a country’s shining sun who showed up after early lessons with a woman who lived nearby and labored for nothing more than a bit of food to take home for his family. Everyone would surely recognize YangYang. The prince who’d sailed in a month ago from the Chinese empire with his parents. The prince who’d also been seen talking with the ragged farm boy once or twice in the market, but would never be accused of befriending the boy. At least until they crossed the road together and made their friendship known. 

Three guards ran past on horses and there were no more in sight yet, just people running from one place to the next. A perfect time to cross if there ever was such a thing. 

“Ready?” Donghyuck asked. 

He squeezed YangYang’s hand lightly and lifted himself up slightly. Throughout the work he did and constantly roaming the countryside, his legs were strong. He was fast, but YangYang, in his expensive black boots and long robe, would not be nearly as fast. He would hold Donghyuck up, but that was alright. Donghyuck had no reason to cross the road other than for his friend, and he would never leave the young boy behind. 

“As I’ll ever be,” YangYang responded. 

They waited for just a moment, scanning for a decently clean path across the road, and when the opportunity came, Donghyuck flew out first, gripping YangYang’s hand tightly, tugging him from the bushes. 

Together, the boys raced from the grassy side straight into the muck of the road, splashing through sun-warmed mud as they ran, random passerby’s shrieking at the sudden intrusion on the road. Their shrieks caught the attention of others, who stared at the running boys curiously and in awe as they recognized the scarlet robes the prince wore. The guards had not yet returned, however, so the boys kept running, nearly reaching the other grassy side where they could disappear into the trees and leisurely make their way to the lake to cleanse themselves before YangYang returned to the palace. However, their plans were quickly foiled as one person neither were betting on running into, stood firmly in their path. 

“Lee Donghyuck! What in the world are you doing with the prince?” The man’s words were firm but disbelieving, eyes scanning piercingly over the young boys’ heads. 

“H-hi dad…” Donghyuck responded dumbly as he stared up at the tall sun-kissed man who’s cheek he kissed before bed every night. 

“Hi Mr. Lee,” YangYang’s voice was more stable than Donghyuck’s, although his face was shrouded in just as much fear. 

The man standing before them sighed at the boys and shook his head as if he knew exactly how much trouble they would be in when YangYang returned to the palace. He gave his son a look of disappointment and turned his body around. 

“Let’s get you back to the palace, your highness. My son will go with us to explain your disappearance.” 

Donghyuck’s head immediately slumped, gaze lilting to face the dark mud, hand still clasped tightly in YangYang’s as his dad corralled them up the road, past the market, and to the gates of the palace where guards stood tall, sheathed swords strapped to their waists. 

Upon seeing the prince, one guard pushed a lever that raised the gate, allowing the three entrance onto the grand bridge that would lead into the front room of the palace. A place Donghyuck nor his father had ever been to before, where they would usually be excited at the thought of, but as the mud dried on Donghyuck’s face, he couldn’t be more ashamed to stand in the presence of such people as the Chinese emperor and his wife.

“I had fun today. Thank you,” YangYang whispered as they grew closer to the large doorway where the silhouettes of a man and a woman, both wearing crowns, stood. 

At the words, Donghyuck cracked a small smile. 

“This has been a wonderful day,” he agreed. 

YangYang passed the male his own smile before letting it fall off his face as he stood taller to greet his mother and father as the trio came to a slow stop at the door. 

“Where have you been? Your mother’s been worried!” YangYang’s father, Emperor Liu, spoke, voice even and stern. 

YangYang stood firm in his stance while Donghyuck trembled. The tone wasn’t directed at him, but the sheer power and authority had him close to crumpling. 

“And you! You disgusting vermin! Getting my son out in your filthy country, running through the mud!” the woman, YangYang’s mother, spoke harshly to Donghyuck, who already had tears gathering in his eyes. 

Donghyuck’s father did nothing. He could not speak a word to the royal family without severe punishments for himself, his son, or both.

“I snuck out to see him!” YangYang defended. 

This reared his parents’ attentions back to him, his father’s eyes narrowing angrily. 

“You will not leave this palace again for the remainder of our stay here! You will be pleasant to the guards and maids. You will have dinner with us regularly and you will not throw another childish tantrum! And when we get home, you will listen to your tutors, do all your work, and attend training sessions with me. Am I understood?” the male roared angrily. 

YangYang opened his mouth to speak, but an angry flash in the eyes of his father had his mouth closing, head bowing as he nodded. 

As the situation quelled, it seemed then that his mother noticed the conjoined hands of the prince and the common farm boy. 

“What is this?” she shrieked, staring between the two of them. “You will not promote such slanderous acts with a boy coming from dirt!”

“He isn’t-” YangYang started but one look from his father shut him up again. 

Donghyuck wanted to crawl in a hole. The woman was scrutinizing him with a disgusting look on her face. One that made him squeeze YangYang’s hand tighter involuntarily. 

“You trash! Release my son’s hand!” she snapped, seeming to have noticed Donghyuck’s wrist flex. 

“He doesn’t have to!” YangYang argued. 

At YangYang’s rebuttal, his mother stepped forward and Donghyuck’s heartbeat quickened. She grabbed both of their wrists, holding them up slightly and began to forcibly yank at the wrists to part them. YangYang held on tighter. Tears slowly began to trickle down Donghyuck’s cheeks, creating trail marks in the mud at the force, however, it wasn’t until the woman dug her nails into Donghyuck’s skin that he fully released YangYang’s hand with a whimper. 

“Trash!” the woman shrieked before a stinging slap hit across Donghyuck’s right cheek, pulling a sob from his throat as his body jolted at the hit. 

“Mom!” YangYang yelped, but that was all Donghyuck had time to hear through the ringing in his ears. 

His cheek stung painfully from the slap, tears trailed faster down his cheeks, blinding him as YangYang was pulled inside and guards forcibly escorted Donghyuck and his father off the bridge, to the muddy side of town where their low social class kept their heads in the mud. 

As they stepped off the bridge, Donghyuck’s father pulled his son into an embrace before leaning down and carefully swooping his silently sobbing son onto his back where he would carry him the rest of the way home. 

As they left the outskirts of the palace courtyard and back through the market, Donghyuck let his head rest atop his fathers. He knew even then that this was the last he’d be seeing of the prince for a while. 

And he wasn’t wrong. Thirteen years would pass without seeing his friend again.

**Author's Note:**

> I know this first chapter is short, but I hope you have enjoyed! Please stay tuned for the next chapter!!


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